it might actually be time for a revolution. and it turns out that a popular drink at starbucks says a surprising. thank . you thank you. welcome back to our team coverage of the twenty twelve presidential election i'm christine and i'm tom hartman here's a look. here's a look at the electoral map some of the big states actually we'll get to that just what we're looking at right now what we were looking at just a moment ago was the obama. party the rally there in chicago illinois they're

cheering about something we're assuming it could be some information that we just heard as well and that is that the denver post has called the state of colorado for president obama so if they're cheering i mean they are cheering but that's what i'm going to guess they're cheering about now let's get to the electoral map sure and the electoral map using colorado now tentatively blue some of the big states out west just closed including california literally a minute ago with california fifty five electoral votes it's of course not figuring into the tally that we have right now neither of the votes for colorado if that's accurate right now we do have governor mitt romney with one hundred ninety nine electoral votes and president obama with one hundred eighty one again polls out on the west coast just now closing going to be a little while before we find that out but certainly would be very surprising if the president didn't win california and that's going to be a huge shift in the numbers when we do get not just california i think oregon

washington state we would see there's a variety of states of western. it's still it's still coming down to we're still waiting to hear what's happening in florida and ohio and virginia and virginia the voter suppression states the states where they have made it really really hard particularly for democratic voters to vote and so those people are still standing in line here it is a lot of o'clock at night hours after the polls closed also at eleven o'clock. o'clock at night we have r r t correspondent megan lopez at sixteen hundred pennsylvania avenue where of course president obama hopes to stay and romney hopes to move into we also have that man producer of breaking this that live from miami and of course our tease ramon go window in los angeles hello to all of you. as well so. so so first of all does anybody have any. late information or anything you want to toss in before we get into specific

questions meghan let's start with you what are you seeing outside of the white house is anyone gathering there yet. christine absolutely people are definitely starting to gather i was here about two hours ago and it was pretty calm there was a little bit of a rally right behind us across the street from the white house playing music it was very peaceful everybody here has been pretty peaceful what i will say is that the crowd does seem to be a little bit younger also we kind of started to hear a little bit of chanting but the police presence is also pretty pretty predominant as well christine. pretty pretty prominent police is very interesting manny what's happening out of florida. i'm glad you're asking there is actually you mentioned a couple of counties a little while ago you mentioned miami dade orange county palm beach county these again are counties that are historically problematic and at election time these lines these people are holding on they're still out there waiting in line hours after laterals of closed and the miami herald has actually. put out a story about one man who actually suffered

a seizure waiting in line after hours and hours so i mean people are still waiting it's still going to be a really long night for voters here in florida i mean things are really getting interesting president obama actually has a thirty six thousand vote lead at this time around ninety percent of the vote is in and florida is actually expecting a record record voter turnout somewhere around nine million voters want to know could it be managed to all these voter suppression efforts the rick scott put in place are are now we're now seeing blowback basically i think i think this is just another example of how silly things can get here in florida i mean we've seen this time and time again all eyes again this year on florida thinking is might once again be you know this might be another two thousand and one been hearing reports about governor gary johnson of the libertarian party actually possibly having almost enough votes to upset this mean it's a combination of a lot of things tom and i wouldn't be surprised if this is exactly like you said

just backlash of those suppression efforts in florida and no matter who wins the election tonight i think the story of these long lines some of the things that people have to deal with just to exercise that right to vote that is a story worth telling tonight and it's going to be worth telling for the weeks and months to come ramon i want to go to you now polls just closing now on the west coast. not a battle battleground state certainly but there were some interesting ballot measures and they talk a little bit about what voters are telling you. that's right exactly the polls just closed a couple of minutes ago and there are still people waiting in line now as tom had mentioned earlier california is traditionally a blue state most of these west coast states are expected to go to president barack obama so far obviously some very controversial ballot initiatives here in california whether it be the labeling of g.m.o. foods to the death penalty so those are some of the more contentious issues we also

have a proposition with which would really take away the power of unions which has seen a ton of spam the in both sides of that proposition so it's still going to be a while till we'll hear some of these results as people are still waiting in line and there was a lot of mail in both here in california and here in the west we're also waiting to hear what will happen in nevada considered a swing state it looks like it's starting to lean towards president obama the democrats and latino groups were very aggressive in their voter registration drives there and you know nevada is really emblematic of the problems that the g.o.p. has had in reaching out to latino voters and the infamous or famous i guess demographic shift to the reality that is happening here in the united states of republican party doesn't not only doesn't want to acknowledge they seem to be trying to drag us back to one nine hundred fifty by their fingernails ramon very excellent report thank you so so so very much i'm curious meghan you're at the

white house washington d.c. right on the virginia border what any any word on what's going on in virginia we're still waiting to to get something definitive out of that state. absolutely and what we do know is that it's pretty common for the white house but over in virginia in the polling stations there it is anything but calm virginia of course close their polling stations at about seven pm also interesting to note they open their polling stations at about six this. morning one of the earliest states to actually open up their polling stations and yet at seven o'clock when those polls did close there were still lines of people that were waiting to vote now the virginia state board said that they are going to go ahead and let everybody that was in line to vote they are planning on keeping those lines open and starting to announce those at those addresses over at eleven pm but so far we haven't heard anything yet now you might be wondering tom and christine why are these polls and why are these is this happening and part of it comes down to

a higher voter turnout the absentee ballots are still the same number of maybe of plus or minus a few thousand compared to what we saw in two thousand and eight but what we're also starting to see and you might hear the chanting behind me we're also starting to see is that election official said that the polling stations are taking so long because people are taking longer and that's because of the confusing text on the ballots there's of course two constitutional measures that are on one is eminent domain for private properties and the other one of course is legislative veto and most importantly tom this is what you might find interesting is that they're actually saying there's not enough computers to verify the identity so it's not that there's not too many and there's not enough polling booth and there's a not enough voter i.d. verification stations virginia of course is one of the first people to one of the first states to really enact these of these voter i.d. laws in this election cycle and so we're kind of starting to see possibly the cracks in this voter i.d. system so voter suppression is is biting them as it were i'm seeing the numbers

here with the eighty seven percent reporting in virginia romney forty nine point seven to obama forty eight point nine but i'm guessing that that missing roughly thirteen percent twelve and change percent of the vote in virginia is coming from those places where people are still standing in lines that are hours and hours long and those being the northern and more urban. counties where they're probably going to go for obama your sense of. that is my sense of it job i mean right now we're in such a close election a list such a close call right now we're genya of course is only thirteen percent of the thirteen electoral votes but even those thirteen count in such a close race like this democrats yes they are leading the polls right now which is actually very interesting tom because as you recall as christine i'm sure you recall in two thousand and eight barack obama won you that was the first time that a democrat won the state since one nine hundred seventy two that's forty four years that republicans are winning so if he does win this time it will be the second time

in a row both voting for president obama manny i want to go to you there in florida i know you spent some time outside around miami today what what's the sense you're getting in terms of the issues that people are voting on. i think there's one go ahead manufactory i think there's one thing that really on the minds of people and the one thing that's actually president obama kind of. pinned up against the wall in the state of florida is the fact that people here in florida are concerned about the economy and the fact that florida has an eight point seven percent unemployment rate compared to that seven point nine percent national unemployment rate it's going to get very very hard for president obama to kind of tout his economic recovery efforts here on the other hand he has made big efforts in terms of having lots of boots on the on the ground here when it comes to campaign volunteers over two hundred thousand volunteers on the obama campaign have

been a significant difference in these counties that we're talking about that are very problematic miami dade orange county and others that were mentioned earlier they're kind of still experiencing people lining up at the polls these are the these are the counties that are actually turning out to to vote for president obama like i mentioned earlier he has a significant lead but it's still going to be a while before we find out exactly what's what's going to happen here in florida that they could just kind of comes back down to. tom was suggesting earlier we're referring to these voter suppression efforts here in florida and we do want to make a quick announcement while we have all of you here and that is that n.b.c. news has just called the state of iowa for president obama so certainly this race starting to to really shift a little more in obama's favor i'm hearing cheering i'm not sure if that is outside of the white house where you are megan but with the electoral count as of now wow this is this is really close two hundred three for mitt romney two hundred fifty

eight for obama and when i say it's really close i mean it's getting very close to that magic number that two hundred seventy electoral. picks up or florida looks like he's he's got he's home all the way. you certainly were looking at some of these long lines the video today just so many places including right here in washington d.c. people waited for two hours to vote in a district that isn't even a state a place where obama was sort of women you still have people it's important i think i think people want to make a statement and you know there was all this discussion about well he might win the electoral college but not the popular vote and people are saying no we want to win the popular vote to we want there to be a mandate you know give him an opportunity to actually get some things done right i want to thank our correspondents out there in the field our t. correspondent megan lopez who is live in front of the white house artie's manny rappel oh producer for breaking the sad news in miami and of course. in los angeles

. we will be back soon right after this. the state run english speaking russian channel it's kind of like.

russia today has an extremely confrontational stance when it comes to us.

welcome back everyone we have some breaking news that president obama has won re-election we do have a winner obama there with two hundred seventy four votes just moments ago the state of ohio the state of iowa called for the president you are looking at live pictures of the obama campaign headquarters in chicago illinois tom what a night it's been it is it's just amazing. i'm very pleased to say that will will

we'll see how this plays out critical thing is going to be candy governor but for the moment let's figure out how we got here absolutely i think this is something predicted by some people depending on what you were reading and who you were watching you may not be surprised a whole lot of people in this country at this moment are shocked are absolutely shocked that the president won and guess what it's not even eleven thirty eastern time and we have a winner i do want to break this down and talk about how this happened so let's bring in sam sax you've been with us all night you've been talking about the states the electoral numbers as they've been coming in how did we get here well i mean i guess nate silver was there at the time when he said there's a fifty fifty chance is going to come down ohio we're keeping an eye on florida we just got the reports of the long lines so there was going to be a wait there we're keeping our own region here with the long white lies is so there was to be a wait there if president obama would have one of their states would have put him over the top to get ohio called president wins that and that puts him over over to

seventy so it really doesn't matter what happens in virginia or florida anymore right now it's so strange to hear it doesn't matter what happens in florida. because that is pretty strange but once. you are here it is president obama wins. i guess so the whole strategy. what we're going to such as a blog is that if it comes down to it it certainly seems like the it to me we mentioned this last segment that the whole voter suppression strategy has produced an incredible blowback but it's three hours on the radio today just asking people about their experiences and voting and all these callers calling a many of them or describing problems trying to vote and be all of them or describing their determination and the determination of people around them not to have their friends and let's not forget there were quite a few laws passed once again folks that this is the excitement of it the announcement that we just made that president obama has been projected to win

another four years in the white house but again tom we're talking about voter suppression we're talking about as some of the voter id laws some of these various laws that were passed and ended up. being notified basically by courts in some of these states that really had to step in and say by the way these laws are passing i think you're signing into law as governors are actually not constitutional so this was a strategy that that is tried and it failed this is and by the way this is nothing new and we talked about how this is kind of jim crow back here christine and sam but back in one nine hundred eighty the guy who was the modern architect of all this stuff paul while you were a guy who co-founded the american legislative exchange council alec and co-founded the hurt. who was speaking and i believe we have the video of those was speaking to a group in a church in dallas texas at the time he was running the direct mail campaign for

ronald reagan he was one of the senior guys one of the senior strategist in the reagan campaign senior strategist on the on the bush senior campaign and the bush jr campaign he's died. but here he was lay no the republican strategy for the next three decades that we've seen played out it writ large by laws passed by his organization that he created the american legislative exchange council alec years paul why would. somebody want a christian. what i call but go girl group government they want everybody to vote. i don't want everybody to vote elections are not won by a majority of people they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now as a matter of fact our leverage in the election is quite candid like go drop out go bowling populist go down. now. and that's an important issue here is this is this started way back but we just saw the real charge for this legislation would republicans won in two thousand and ten and took over

a lot of these state legislatures you sold tons of these voter id laws and you're right christine a lot of them were struck down of the courts but ultimately this is going to go to the supreme court over the next few months they're going to decide this and that's going to really affect elections moving forward so yes a president obama won democrats are probably going to pick up some seats in the senate when it comes down to it and you know republican to keep the house they might lose a few seats there so overall this is a pretty good night for the democrats but this is going to be a war to be fought moving forward over who gets to vote when they get to vote and i think that's connected to the result that we have tonight that president obama will have a second term related to that supreme court i mean certainly it is expected that in the next four years at least one supreme court justice will retire now we know what kind of justice will most likely replace that so a lot of things to be drawn from what we're gathering tonight which is what those people that you're seeing right now full of excitement getting ready at some point for the president to come out and speak they are thinking about all these things

and the next i think the springboard tom is you know you've talked about this a lot this is the big issue that not many people are talking about lots of democrats were kind of saying look this is really bored the supreme court we need to focus on this to make sure president obama wins and now that he's won this is a big deal and he held the senate which means that if ruth bader ginsburg retires he can replace her with another progressive justice if justice anthony kennedy retires there are the two who are most likely to retire soon or you know. if assuming you know flow. in virginia very close president obama has a slight lead in florida he pulls it off and he pulls off you know virginia we had in mostly democratic counties still online so people voting could still pull that off that's a mandate to i mean this is president obama winning big again for a second year which will this hurt republicans want to be obstructionist again in congress for another two years and and as much as the supreme court tries to pretend that they're not a political animal. and they do respond the public. and they do dictate public

opinion as well and it's well i didn't expect though in a lot of the conservatives on the court to stick around another four years if they can yeah you know you don't need the oldest members are old democrat appointees who will propose likely be the first to retire so you know when it comes to actually changing the ideological shift of the supreme court democrats might have to want to give him twenty sixteen so there is a chance tonight folks that we're going to go well into the three hundred in terms of the number of electoral votes that president obama is able to get again oh hi oh putting the president over the edge of course but florida not called yet virginia not called yet. really and you know i think again they fell very as you mentioned. he will get a job on t.v. given the future. as a voter id laws this is what they are making a bold prediction like ninety two percent and it's and really throughout the night

looking at the numbers. it really looked good for president obama all all night long when races were called what they look like but it wasn't that maddow is not that different from the map was four years yet so right now we are lost in the we are awaiting governor romney to come out and make a concession speech i think that that's what needs to happen before all these people that you're seeing now maybe they'll flip flop but. it is a vice president will demand to speak up i didn't disappear chiro paul ryan actually won his. ok all right and won his seat so he'll have a job that's right he's going to have a job he's got he's still going to be a force announcer after that and that's the thing about paul ryan it is quite a few people don't live in washington d.c. had not heard of paul ryan and now they have all ryan has become a national figure who knows what that means for twenty sixteen. but certainly an interesting turn of events here it is a british citizen so that although it's interesting you know republicans were

criticized for wanting mitt romney because it was a moderate they didn't think he could get the base behind them and maybe in the end they were they were right but also if you look at people like todd akin people like richard murdock these were all extreme tea partiers and they all got beat these are all states that republicans thought they were going to win the senate todd akin to preserve richard murdock in indiana they nominated the tea partiers and they lose he started what is sort of the question this raises is the tea party basically the modern tea party is basically driven by these billion years and it's not it's no longer a grassroots group the last two you know i think you know let me ask you sam i mean what do you think the story is going to be tomorrow i mean certainly always the monday morning quarterbacking what does this mean that president obama not only won one by less of a close margin than some people expected that the results are called before eleven thirty at night what's the narrative i can think of any other narrative out there it's a big night for democrats really when it comes down to it and i know everybody is getting tired of this two part of the two party system but regardless we still live

in it this election democrats win big and now look the point is for progressives out there and even for libertarians out there is to to build the movements they're going to force our politicians to act but this is this is when a lot of pundits and politicos kind of backtrack was it hurricane sandy you know was it. you know that stop in momentum haley barbour's that vote for mitt romney to get off the campaign trail you know people are going to draw what they will and what they want to absolutely have heard a number of. for. men. romney certainly was a flawed. cers didn't like him but i think obama basically sold his business that you inherited is astir he got a little bit better actually a lot better yet a lot of. republicans outspent democrats when it comes down to it when it comes to all the outside money and everything right now we're looking at live pictures this is not the headquarters in chicago of obama as we were looking at before this is the live pictures from sixteen hundred pennsylvania avenue right outside the white

house this is actually right down the street from our studios you're seeing the crowd starting to gather there gather in support of the news that they just heard which is that their president president barack obama will return for another four years and you can see the excitement there i can only imagine that the crowd will get larger now we did see a crowd similar to this size and excitement under obama and that was the night that the president announced a solemn one had been killed in a sort of impromptu rally formed outside of the white house certainly a difference a reason and a different energy tonight you know i mean i remember in two thousand and eight i was in front of the white house there with the president was reelected and i can't imagine that the same joy jubilance is still there i think people are are kind of like that was a close one we saved ourselves from for mitt romney but all the same energy has not been here at all it's a joke but it's

a good game because again. absolutely but it's a campaign. yeah at the end of the day you win states not debates and at the end of the day you know which also raises the question who's going to win the popular vote i don't think romney still has an edge in the popular vote that's counting which which means will there be a debate about the electoral college let's hope so and different publications get burned this year like democrats got burned in two thousand the maybe that can get republicans on board with movements like national popular vote which would scrap the electoral college algebra democratic state so for the right. once again tonight folks. still awaiting the results from the very close closely contested states of virginia and florida but it seems to us in this election year two thousand and twelve that we don't need those states to be able to project that barack obama will remain in the white house for another four years did he was able to win the state of ohio ohio of course a huge manufacturing state the auto bailout and perhaps that is what all did it but

we want to thank you all for joining us tonight thank you christine so it's been it's been an exciting night it's been a fun night we hope that we've provided a little bit different coverage for you signing off for now hope you have a great night. too much brighter. from the sun still. we. don't.

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